Naphill Common - Features

Now that we know that Naphill Common extends to the boundary of Bradenham Manor, and so
includes ’The Clumps’, it seems appropriate to say a little about them. The
Clumps, sometimes called ’The Rings’, are a group of five (perhaps six)
earthworks situated on the narrow piece of land at the Bradenham end of the Common, owned
by the National Trust. As you walk along the footpath H2 towards the Umbrella Tree and
Bradenham, they are on the right. Each is roughly oval and consists of a low bank with a
slight ditch on the outside. The largest is 29 x 24.4 metres and the smallest is 14.9 x
12.7 metres. The questionable sixth one is 12.2 x 11.5 metres and may be the remains of a
pond.

Layout of the Clumps by Trevor Hussey

Old postcards showing the Clumps (dates unknown)

Old postcard showing the Clumps - date unknown

The Clumps are a mystery and have been the subject of speculation and debate for
generations. By far the most popular explanation connects them with the drovers, who
brought herds of cattle from Wales and the West across the country to the London markets,
in the years before the railways made them redundant. The drovers needed to pasture their
cattle overnight and, according to the theory, they enclosed them in the Clumps for
safety. This story has been repeated many times, including in Rex Leaver’s
admirable book Naphill and Walters Ash: Looking Back at Village Life, published in
1999 to celebrate the Second Millennium.

Unfortunately this romantic story is unlikely to be true. There are several facts that
count against it. First, the Clumps are so small: even the largest would hold very few
cattle and would certainly not provide a significant amount of grass. Second, the bank is
very low, quite unlike those used for enclosing livestock and the tiny ditch is on the
outside which indicates that, if it had any function at all, it would be to keep animals
out, rather than in. Third, while the banks have been worn down in places where paths
cross them, there are no signs of entrances. Presumably, the entrances would have been as
wide as a farm gate.

So what are the Clumps? There is a clue in the trees. The Clumps have trees on their
perimeters and in their enclosures and these are of unusual kinds. There are limes, horse
chestnuts and ash trees; all species that are either found nowhere else on the Common or,
as in the case of ash, found very infrequently. There are some oaks but they may have
invaded from the Common. I suggest that the Clumps, as the name suggests, are 18th or
early 19th Century groups of trees. It was very common for landowners to plant trees in
small circular enclosures to mark the edge of their estates or screen off their
tenant’s humble dwellings.

Extract from Naphill Gazette July 1966

But, what about the drovers? Just behind the Clumps there are two long meadows, now very
overgrown, which they may have used, or they could have simply grazed their cattle on the
Common itself which was, at that time, open meadow land with a few pollarded trees, and
with the necessary pond for livestock. Dare I add that we need evidence to support the
folk stories that told of drovers using Naphill Common? As you see, these are contentious
issues and they underline the need for The Friends of Naphill Common to encourage some
historians to do some detective work

A sawpit is an oval pit, about 4 meters by 2 meters, over which lumber is positioned to
be sawed with a long two-handled saw by two men, one standing (top dog) above the timber
and the other (underdog) below. The dogs were metal hooks that held the timber onto the
frame. The sawpits normally align along a contour and near a path or track. It was used
for producing sawn planks from tree trunks, which could then be cut down into boards,
pales, posts, etc. Many towns, villages and country estates had their own saw pits.